The invention relates to an elevatable sliding roof of flat design having a rigid roof cover which is slidably supported with the aid of sliding pads. The roof can be moved from a closed position, in which it lies generally in the contour of the roof, into either a raised ventilating position or into a lowered sliding position.
In present day automotive design, increasing efforts are being made to reduce the overall height of the vehicle body in order to reduce running resistance, to reduce vehicle weight in order to achieve a favorable weight/power ratio, and to simultaneously reduce manufacturing costs. However, the flattening of the silhouette of the vehicle to reduce overall height also causes a reduction in the usable inside height of the vehicle. A number of proposals have therefore been made for the purpose of reducing the installed height of the elevatable sliding roof, but usually only the height of part of the sliding roof is reduced and this does not permit a substantial reduction of the total installed height of the sliding roof. In addition, some of the suggestions that have become known call for measures which either considerably increase the manufacturing and assembly costs or substantially increase the weight of the elevatable sliding roof and which therefore are unsatisfactory. Any proposal requiring a height adjustment for either the sliding roof cassette itself or the guide rails located in it requires an additional drive mechanism and it is not possible to achieve a decisive reduction in the total installed height either by means of special designs of the guide rails and the cover or of the lifting and lowering mechanism alone.